is it weird to have your own religious beliefs system

This one has been going in my kind for a while so I’m just asking out

Is it weird for a person to have their own religious beliefs system? Like they don’t adhere to a said religion and just has theirs own beliefs system , for example : a bit of Christian and paganist beliefs that someone personally upholds but doesn’t adhere to neither of these religions, just their own beliefs system

28 points · 48 comments · view on lemmy.world

48 Comments

the_q@piefed.social · 32 pts · 19d

Having religious beliefs in general is pretty weird so you're OK.

zeppo@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 19d

It’s fairly common, in my experience.

WoodScientist@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 19d

You're referring to Syncretism, and it's extremely common in the Western world. 25% of American Christians report believing in reincarnation.

Dookieman12@piefed.social · 12 pts · 19d

No. Every religion started that way.

schwim@piefed.zip · 12 pts · 19d

Literally every religion except the first one are formed via this method.

BottleBoardBakon@lemmy.ml · 10 pts · 19d

Its all made up, so you're free to make up your own stuff too I guess.

Bougie_Birdie@piefed.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 19d

I think it's normal and healthy, if it's not taken too far. Same goes for mainstream religion.

Religion is ultimately about answering the unanswerable. Why are we here, the meaning of life, what happens after we die, that kind of thing. Nobody is able to answer these questions with evidence, so therefore any established religion has just as much credence as whatever you come up with yourself.

Denying objective reality or restricting the rights of others is where you have to draw the line though. That's where things become weird.

Regarding mixing christian and pagan rites, there's a fascinating history of how catholicism in particular incorporated pagan beliefs into their own pantheon. If it's okay for them to pick and choose what to believe, then the same goes for everyone else too

majster@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 19d

It's weird but not uncommon. There are lots of weird people out there. You'll have company.

FuglyDuck@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 19d (5 replies)

Pretty much everyone has their own unique blend of beliefs. Like. Most Christian’s have their things they do or don’t believe, even if there’s a shared framework.

Like, ask 10 Christian’s what the hell the trinity is, you’ll get 20 different and usually mutually contradictory answers.

Or about hell and who goes and for how long.

SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 19d (1 reply)

Yeah. The bible is literally unbelievable, it contradicts itself. Every "believer" has their own headcanon.

TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 19d

And you'll notice that believers will have the vaguest excuses "god works in mysterious ways "we aren't meant to understand god's will" "god has a plan". It's all saying we don't know how things work, but at the same time they will tell you they know god is real. To be a true believer you need to throw logic out the window and play by your own rules. It's why the hardcore ones are so opinionated and self righteous. They deluded themselves into believing they have a divine connection and know things that they've never learned.

TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 19d (2 replies)

I'm not a christian but there's different answers for the trinity other than father, son, and holy spirit?

FuglyDuck@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 18d

Oh yes.

One of the reasons most mainstream christians consider Mormons to not be christian is because they’re not trinitarians - that god is three beings in one. As an example.

Trinitarianism teaches that they’re all the same being, just with 3 different whosiwhatits that they can’t even agree on what they even are.

Jesus lacks attributes the father and Holy Spirit have, making him less than fully god, and he has attributes that they don’t have, etc.

Which when pressed, most christians will fall into one of the first heresies- partialism. Which was part of the Arian Heresy (that Jesus was created and distinct, not fully god)

The problem is that Jesus couldn’t be the messiah (he did none of the messianic things, and wasn’t of the line of David, and even if Joseph was his father, Joseph was of a line cursed to never produce a king….)

So if Jesus is neither god nor the messiah, why worship him?

SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 19d

The trinity was invented to avoid accusations of polytheism, but as usual with religious apologetics it just adds more confusion.

Jesus, god, and the holy spirit must all be one, otherwise the religion is not monotheistic.

But if they are all one, why ever distinguish between them?

So believers arbitrarily assign different roles to their three different gods while pretending it's all the same guy. God is immune to logic, and many christians dare not question their own salvation. It is moral and intellectual cowardice, and it is killing us all.

ianhclark510@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 19d (1 reply)

honestly, that's why I think about stuff as 'religion' versus 'organized religion'

anyone can come up with their own relgion :)

TrippinMallard@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 19d

I organize too many parts of my life. If I create a religion it would probably naturally come with an organized, fully scalable organizational architecture to prevent the standard failure modes of multiple interests accessing shared resources. Along with operational guides for each role, faq's, instructional materials, etc.

TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 19d (6 replies)

I think it depends on what your belief system is. If you take good lessons from several different religions that help you be a better person. Not weird at all

If you wrote science fiction and then all of a sudden wanted to create scientology. Very fucking weird

BottleBoardBakon@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 19d (5 replies)

Do you like Yorkshire gold tea?

TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 19d (4 replies)

I don't think I understand?

BottleBoardBakon@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 19d (3 replies)

Reanu Keaves is one of the go to character names of the spiffing Brit, a YouTuber's known for his love of tea. Specifically, Yorkshire gold.

TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 19d (2 replies)

Oh lol ok ya you're not the first to mention spiffing brit to me but I don't know him, I just thought reanu was a funny name

BottleBoardBakon@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 19d (1 reply)

... But do you like Yorkshire gold tea?

And don't get me wrong it is objectively a funny name 😂

TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 19d

Never had it but I've liked every tea I've had that is camellia based so I probably would

gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 19d (1 reply)

Arguably, even the most devout of devout have their own unique mixture of beliefs, because the scripture is inconsistent and has parts that are unclear.

I'd say that literally everyone has a unique set of beliefs, even atheists will hold into some superstitions, often unaware they are.

I'm atheist, I still do "touch wood" (a pagan thing that got coopted by UK Protestantism, that to prevent a jinx or bring a blessing, you say "touch wood" and tap the nearest wooden thing), cause it does something in my brain, a comforting effect

Dagobah@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 18d

I never really thought about it before but semantically 'atheist' only means 'no belief in God or gods'. Technically it shouldn't preclude belief in spirits or other supernatural elements. I suppose the closest thing to complete disbelief in the supernatural is 'skeptic' but even that's up for interpretation. Do satanism and humanism explicitly rule out any supernatural?

Solumbran@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 19d

What you have is beliefs, which is normal.

A religion is a scam where people are told that all of their beliefs are or should be the same, which is absurd.

Believe what you feel is right, question it often, and that's all. Religions are useless at best, dangerous in general.

HubertManne@piefed.social · 3 pts · 18d

Its honestly really common. Most people sorta mostly believe in their religion and sorta pick and choose whats important to them about it and often grab add ons they come across. A heavily catholic hispanic area I lived in had these psychics who would integrate catholic saints into their thing and make it semi religious and plenty of religious catholics took it in as a thing.

dumples@piefed.social · 3 pts · 19d

I think everyone has their own personal code of conduct and morals that directs their lives. Some (most) people don't explicitly have a set but will justify their own behaviour based on both their religious beliefs and moral code. Some people just retroactively justify their own actons. Its a sign of maturity to think about and be intensional about creating and adhering to your own moral code which may or may not be directed by your own religious believes.

saltesc@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 19d

Normal.

You have to remember many parts of religions have nothing to do with the religion itself. They're just normal things people would think about and do regardless. Religions are the after product of these things. The whole concept of religions is arguably pointless in this regard; they're just ideologies that contain belief (the act of affirming truth without knowledge supporting it).

It's entirely normal to have your own ideas and follow them. That's the core of consciousness.

Trual@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 19d

No, for most of human history people had to have their own beliefs, it's only relatively recently these monotheistic cultures forced so the free thinkers to believe the same things

Abyssian@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 19d

Nah, loads of people don't follow some set religion but still have their own beliefs.

hansolo@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 19d

Not at all! Eclectic belief structures are perfectly normal.

There are thousands of religious sects among each larger religion, so even within a "single" religion, beliefs vary so greatly that not even everyone of the "same" religion sees everyone else on the "same" religion is actually the same.

Need on what you said, either a Christian Mysticism or Christian-Pagan-Syncratic belief isn't even unique to you. Others feel the same way.

Kolanaki@pawb.social · 2 pts · 19d

Yes. Especially if it leads to creating a cult.

Malyca@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 19d

I do it too, we can be weird together

Redditmodstouchgrass@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 18d

I don't really "believe" in anything, but I do hope that there is an afterlife in the sense of "you go where you want to go". I've got a whole little world planned out for myself if there's something out there listening.

Salvo@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 19d

You will probably find most people in Lemmy are Atheist or agnostic, IMO, but you do need to find your own belief system.

While having your own belief system is unusual in our conformist society, it is not weird. What is weird is that so many people blindly follow someone else’s belief system.

sbeak@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 19d

There was always an in-between point from pagan beliefs and Christianity during the Roman era, so it's pretty normal I think. In many places, a mixture of beliefs is super common. In China, for example, the majority have a mix of Chinese traditional beliefs and Buddhism. Japan has their Shinto beliefs mixed with Buddhism and Christianity, and of course the indigenous peoples who were colonised can (important, not all) have a mixture of their own beliefs and the ones brought in by the settlers

TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 18d

Not weird at all. How else do you think all religions across the world have been developed?

rmrf@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 18d

Quakerism, especially unprogrammed meetings for worship, are extremely embracing of this concept

YetAnotherNerd@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 19d

I don’t care what people say, it is absolutely not weird. Everybody has their own version of their own religion. They can say they are 100% Christian, but then they get an abortion because theirs Is “OK“. Or they are Methodist but believe X. Or they’re Baptist but drink. I don’t see a difference in that and combining pieces and parts to make your own version. As Dennis Miller once said “I think my God believes I’m awesome and that is why I chose him as my God“

just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 19d (1 reply)

Many religions are a packaged deals. Meaning they have their own metaphysical beliefs, morality, commandments etc. If people only take some parts of it and not the other, then there will be injustices not only by the outsider's morality but also the insider ones.

Anyways, today we have laws that have largely replaced religion's morality and social justice elements precisely because mixing and matching multiple different moralities and justice systems wasn't very good. So i guess its fine to mix beliefs today

gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 19d

Mixed beliefs have always existed, they're nothing new.

And just cause religion is sold as a package, doesn't mean people use everything in it. How many Jewish people do you know that go "I'm Jewish, but I eat pork"? It's pretty darn common. How many Christians do you know that wear mixed fabrics?

blarghly@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 19d

I think you just described being "Not religious, but spiritual".

So, like, you're the worst

hedders@fedia.io · 1 pts · 18d

No weirder than any other kind of religious belief, I suppose. The Quakers have this kind of pretty loose approach to doctrine, for instance, and they're generally pretty decent people.

pixeldaemon@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 19d

I often meet this, so it's common

farmgineer@nord.pub · 1 pts · 19d

To me personally yes but I think any belief in the supernatural is weird. If you're not hurting anyone or talking my ear off about your beliefs, then you do you to your heart's content

moldy_rice@piefed.keyboardvagabond.com · 0 pts · 19d

Emma Goldman said that 80% of people are followers

You're not weird. You're just not a follower like the vast majority.

melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 18d

Maybe it's nitpicking but having a moral code is a normal thing, having a religious belief system is weird, or at least not the norm.